


How do you take it?

by Ace_pergers_Syndrome, TangentQueenOfDragons



Category: The Magnus Archives
Genre: Honestly there's not much to tag here, Jon makes tea for Martin, M/M, Tea, but it's fine, he's not good at it, the magnus archives - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 09:32:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16699915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ace_pergers_Syndrome/pseuds/Ace_pergers_Syndrome, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TangentQueenOfDragons/pseuds/TangentQueenOfDragons
Summary: Based on a concept by the marvellous TangentQueenOfDragons, I present to you the fic where Jon is terrible at fetching tea.This is set in an AU where nothing is supernatural, everything is fun and no one is dead. Please enjoy this little bit if fluff.





	How do you take it?

Jon stared at the cup in front of him, as the water in the kettle bubbled furiously. If he didn’t figure this out quickly, people were going to wonder where he had disappeared to. 

Martin had not been himself recently. Jon had first noticed this about a week ago, when Martin had turned down on offer from the other archive assistants for a round of drinks down the pub. That was highly unusual, Martin was usually very fond of work events. His eyes lit up when he got to spend time with his friends outside of work, and he always ended up offering to pay for half the drinks. 

There had been other things too. Martin’s little toy spider that sat on his desk was usually in a different place every time Jon saw it, but it seemed as though he hadn’t moved it in several days now. And he hadn’t left any of his little comments in the margins of his notes from investigating cases. 

And, perhaps most glaringly, he hadn’t been offering anyone any tea for the last few days. Marin usually drank a few cups of tea every day, and every time he went he went around everyone to see who else wanted. But for the last three or four days now, nothing. Even without all the other little oddities, this would have thrown up a red flag. 

No, something was up with Martin. Even if he was still being his usually, friendly self, something was wrong. The problem was, Jon had no idea what it was, or how to talk to him about it. Jon wasn’t even sure Martin would want to talk to him about it; Jon was his boss, and he certainly wasn’t the warmest person in the world. He probably wasn’t someone Martin would think of as a friend. 

So, he couldn’t talk to Martin about what was bothering him, and he had no way to help with whatever was bothering him. But he thought that he could at the very least make him a cup of ruddy tea. 

Except that Jon had no idea how Martin took his tea. 

This was utterly ridiculous. Martin had memorised how every person in the archives took their tea. They had worked together in some capacity or other for four years, and Martin had fetched him hundreds of tea, and only needed to ask the first few times. And somehow, in all that time, Jon had never learnt how Martin liked his tea made. 

The kettle was done boiling. Other people were going to want to use the break room, and he couldn’t just be in here staring uselessly at an empty mug. He had to make a decision here. Maybe he could just make him the tea that he drank. Black with one sugar. Maybe that would be fine? 

But most people like tea in their milk. And what if he didn’t like sugar? What if he hated sugar in tea. What if the utterly disappointing tea just made him feel worse? He could bring him a tea without sugar but what if that was too bitter for him. 

Was he having an anxiety attack? He might actually be having an anxiety attack. Over tea. He spent all day every work day reading statements of the strange and supernatural and this was the most anxious he had ever been at work. 

No, this was ridiculous. He was going to sort this out. 

\-------------------------------------------

“Um, Martin?” 

Martin looked up from his desk, to see Jon holding a tray. It was a tea tray, it had two cups, a jug of milk, a pot of sugar, and a plate of biscuits. 

Well that was… unusual. 

There was a very long silent moment before Jon cleared his throat awkwardly: “Uh… tea?” 

“Jon, is that- is that the milk and sugar from the break room?” 

“Uh, yes.” 

“And the biscuits from the break room?” 

“Yeah, they are.” 

“... Jon, why did you steal the all the tea things from the break room?” 

“I… I didn’t know how you take your tea.” 

There was another awkward pause, while Martin tried to process what on earth was going on here. Jon was now staring at the tray, and Martin could swear that he was blushing. That was something he didn’t think he’d ever seen on Jon. 

“Why didn’t you ask me?” 

“Ah, well. I… I didn’t think of that.” 

There was a beat before Martin responded by snorting, and then bursting into laughter. It wasn’t a cruel or a mocking laugh. It was warm, and bright. And it was the most Martin he had sounded all week. 

The tight knot of anxiety in Jon’s stomach unwound itself as Martin tried to apologise for laughing, even while he couldn’t stop it. It took a moment for Martin to compose himself again, wiping a tear from his eye. 

“Ah, sorry Jon.”  
“Don’t worry about it Martin, really.” 

“And uh, thank you. I’d love some tea.” 

Martin took his tea with milk, and two sugars. Jon decided he was going to remember that,. 

\----------------------------------------

 

“But he took all the milk and sugar-” 

“I realise that Tim-” 

“AND the biscuits-” 

“Tim,” Sasha said seriously, looking Tim dead in the eyes, “I love you, but if you try to interrupt them I am going to tackle you.” 

“I just wanted a bloody coffee” Tim grumbled. He sounded resigned. 

“Well then you should nip over to Costa.” Basira suggested. “While you’re there you can pick me up a chai.” 

Jon and Martin had been sitting at Martin’s desk for about half an hour now with their tea and biscuits. It was hard to tell what they were talking about, but at some point the conversation had involved Martin miming something with his little spider toy. Jon didn’t seem wild about that, but he had tolerated it. Martin looked more lively than he had all week. 

As Tim left for the coffee shop, muttering darkly to himself, Jon said something that caused Martin to almost spit his tea out. Jon smiled, and chuckled along with him. He looked at Martin with a look Sasha had never seemed on him before. It seemed… fond. 

Sasha and Basira, who had been quietly spying on this scene for a few minutes, shared a look. Sasha sighed, and dug twenty pounds out of her pocket, and handed it to Basira. 

“I told you.” Basira said, tucking the note away in her own jacket pocket. 

There was more quiet laughter from inside the room. And Sasha found she wasn’t too upset over losing the money.


End file.
